"Financial collapse, eh? How are reforming entitlements going to cause a financial collapse?"

Easy. There will be NO entitlement reform without tax hikes on the wealthy. It's called compromise and the GOP will have none of it.They would rather watch the economy burn and win the mid-term elections.

You keep forgetting this is a two party system and, by the way, those lower tax rates you think are indispensable we in place throughout the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

Cause and effect? No, but certainly no reason to believe our economy couldn't survive higher taxes on the wealthy. Heck, I think it did pretty well with it in the late 90's.